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DC Madam & Marriott

An interesting Utah phone number showed up on the newly released phone logs of the so-called DC Madam, who is alleged to have run a high-end prostitute ring in the Washington, D.C., area.

No, it wasn't to or from the personal cell phone of any of Utah's congressmen or senators. The mysterious number was that of a Salt Lake City-based customer-support line of the Marriott hotel chain "rewards" program. There were five separate calls from December 1999 through June 2000, including one 12-minute call, according to logs of the calls, which were discovered thanks to the help of the Web site, Dcphonelist.com.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who says she ran only a legal sex-fantasy operation, was indicted earlier this year and accused of running a $300-an-hour prostitute ring. She released her phone records hoping to spook some former "fantasy" clients into testifying that they never paid for sex.

So far, the deputy secretary of state has resigned after reporters started scouring the phone records, and Sen. David Vitter, R-La., is under fire for admitting a past "sin."

In Marriott's case, no, it wasn't some employee calling or any special reward offered to return customers.

"The Marriott calls most likely are personal ones," Palfrey told me this week.

Mitt's money

There were some interesting details in presidential candidate Mitt Romney's latest campaign finance disclosure. For example, former Utah Gov. Norm Bangerter is apparently in Romney's camp, at least enough to give him $500. Mormon author Richard Eyre gave $2,300 and eight employees of the LDS Church and a few BYU professors also donated.

The best find, however, was a $1,000 donation from a teacher who listed his employer as, "The Church of Ladder-Day Saints." Maybe that's a new sect I don't know about. They believe in the Book of Mormon, the Bible and, well, ladders.

Hatch's Facebook

Sen. Orrin Hatch is no longer on Facebook, the online social network geared for Generation X to communicate with one another, share photos and post comments. Hatch did have a profile until this past week, but it was removed after Hatch staffers found out that neither the senator nor his campaign was behind it.

However, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, still has his own Facebook profile, along with 111 supporters.

Going to the mattresses

Sen. Orrin Hatch stayed up most of Tuesday night as the Senate held what some are calling a pajama party: an all-night debate on withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Hatch took a nap in his Senate office but returned to the floor at 5:30 a.m. to speak.

And since he doesn't drink coffee, he didn't even get a caffeine jolt.

I'm not sure how many C-SPAN 2 viewers were watching that early in the morning, but give Hatch credit for using what I'm going to term a $10 word.

"Mr. President, absquatulation is not a policy," Hatch said, using a word that means to leave suddenly and "squat" somewhere.

Wouldn't you love to hear the president try to use that word?

Conservative Matheson

Rep. Jim Matheson often calls himself a fiscally conservative Democrat. He belongs to the moderate and frugal-minded Blue Dog Caucus and annually fights against an automatic pay raise for members of Congress.

Now Matheson can make another claim: He is more fiscally conservative than most of his Utah colleagues - Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett and Rep. Rob Bishop.

That's according to a report by the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste, which tracked votes on efforts to cut pork in spending bills. Rep. Chris Cannon bested the whole delegation, scoring a 77 percent fiscal conservative record while Matheson came in second with 64 percent.

The group famous for its "Pig Book" of congressional earmarks gave Hatch a 59 percent, Bennett a 52 percent and Bishop the lowest of the delegation with 46 percent.

(Note: Within one day of when this item was posted on the Out of Context blog, Cannon's campaign had already sent it out to supporters.)

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* BURR reports from Washington for The Tribune. He can be reached at tburr@sltrib.com.